Tuesday, 29 November 2011

How do they do it? Last week they sold me a 4 kilogram bag of long grain rice for 4p. This week they sold me six 4 kilogram bags of rice for 6p. Not 6p each but 1p each! That's 0.25p per kilogram. (It should have been 0.1p per kilogram but I didn't argue the point when the man told me his till wouldn't process that.) Unbelievable though it may seem I have written it up on the Toxic Drums web site where you can see the receipt for yourself.

I guess it is a kind Universe sometimes. My life is an utter wreck and my financial situation (if it can be called that) is disastrous. But 10 days ago Tesco excelled - well the Universe did because I don't suppose Tesco meant to. And then I visited them last night and they dropped the price even more. I am now looking forward to shopping in Tesco next week to see what amazing bargains they can come up with next.

Monday, 28 November 2011

The poor old Swedish people are being seriously embarrassed by their journalists, politicians and legal beagles. Given that the origins of the Swedish case against Julian Assange were so questionable that the charges were dropped by a senior prosecutor it was a mystery when one of Sweden's three Directors of Public Prosecution, Marianne Ny, reopened the case declaring "I want to make it clear that I have not been put under any kind of pressure, political or otherwise."

Given that there has been this dreadful media circus, this witch hunt, this gory assault and prolonged lynch mob hysteria against Julian Assange for over a year, it now appears the Swedish press and television are not satisfied and are dutifully dancing to their puppet masters tune and playing to the gallery by instigating one smear campaign after another against Julian Assange. The web site Sweden vs. Assange (which is worth a browse) has just published an article Media climate in Sweden which paints a very dark and frightening picture for those of us concerned with real human justice.

There is a lot of rhetoric flying around over the proposed strike on Wednesday by public sector workers. The central issue is pensions and retirement for public sector workers. We all know there is economic upheaval around the globe and we all have to "tighten our belts". The UK is in serious financial difficulties and that needs to be turned around. It will inevitably mean less, not more, for the majority of people. So why are these people causing all this disruption at a crisis point when we need them to be pulling their weight, putting their shoulders to the wheel and their noses to the grind stone?

Brendan Barber, the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said it was 'unlikely' there was anything the Government could say to persuade him to call off Wednesday’s action.

Dave Prentis, the leader of Unison, said the mass walkout will definitely go ahead and could be the biggest since 1926.

David Cameron, one of Britain's Prime Ministers, says that it is irresponsible to go ahead with the strike when talks are still ongoing.

So are these strikes a good idea? Surely they will cost the country millions of pounds and push it closer to the precipice of disaster. There are lots of people who fear the breakdown of our society who would bend to the oppressors and do their bidding just to get a momentary reprieve from the pain.

Does anyone recall how we got into this mess with the pensions in the first place? Does anyone recall that it was a crime far bigger than the Brink's-MAT Robbery or the Great Train Robbery. It was a deception by government officials on a scale that warrants permanent jail sentences for the perpetrators.

The equation was simple: Put a percentage of your earnings into savings to cover your retirement. This is the benefit of working as a group. This is the benefit of 'government' organising welfare. One person can't reasonably predict their "working life" versus their "retirement" and so can only guess at the proportion of salary required for a pension. But statistically it can be calculated very accurately. Even if it is a bit wrong the adjustments are very small.

So with the pronounced plan of putting some of the National Insurance contributions into "pension" investments the government effectively "authorised" this scam. But they did NOT put the money into investment plans. Sure they put some there. But the majority of pensions being paid soon became a direct transfer from the earning population to the pensioners. This suited government officials because there was more coming in than they were paying out.

It was fraudulent and it was theft. When this was exposed in the 1980's it was essentially ignored with distraction, argument and obfuscation. It was 'covered up' with a new worrying perception that, given the changing demographics, there was a crisis looming. This provided more unscrupulous government officials with moralistic and fear mongering mechanisms for taking yet MORE dosh from the population, but they still didn't act responsibly with respect to the current population and their 'pension' savings. So as the whole world including the Middle East, Europe and America descend into the abyss that is their own making, the power mongers are still trying to 'take advantage' of the situation for their own benefit.

That is what these strikes are about! Sure there are militant Trades Unionists who revel in the opportunity for a fight. But that is the current way of these humans. Thank God (you know: that oppressor's myth) that some of the dogs of war are fighting at the helm of the majority. Thank goodness they are on the right side. They may be morally sound and they may not, but that is not the issue at hand. The issue is that it is time to say "NO" to these perverse and manipulative, self serving politicians. It is time to say NO to the corruption. It is time to recognise that we are in a mess and continuing with the illusions set up by the abusers is not a way to resolve the problem.

As for David Cameron's expressed view that 'the strike is irresponsible when there are still discussions being held' he is simply continuing the illusion. To turn it on its authoritarian, bigoted and hypocritical head, the fact is, Mr Cameron, you have had ample opportunity to do something responsible. You have had extensive and repeated stays of execution to get your act together. You are now simply prevaricating and threatening and getting, frankly, desperate. You had the chance to sort this out. You had another chance to sort this out. You even had more chances to sort it out, but instead you chose to side with your financial oppressors, your paymasters. You chose to be a fawning parasite. You chose to be a sycophant. You chose which side you were on and it's the wrong one.

So the strikes must go ahead! The people of this country must understand that the Occupy movement is profound and inescapable. The people must take responsibility for their actions. They must ensure that the 'elected government' IS 'representing' them and not dictating to them. Whilst we live in this illusion of democracy we are only kidding ourselves if we defer decisions to a group of people whose interests are clearly oppositional to the general population.

The government has to be kept under control. The government should be controlled by the people - not the other way round. The damage caused by the strike will be a small price to pay compared with the critical and terminal damage being done by this government. Austerity measures MUST start at the top of the pile of corruption.